Dr. Anitha. S : ‘Life Style Risk Factors among IT/ITeS Professionals:
A Case of Technopark Trivandrum’EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In the twenty first century India is globally booming with its IT industrial sector. The contributions being made by the IT industry towards the country’s GDP has led to a steady growth of the Indian economy. India’s IT industry is regarded as a hub of innovators providing world class technology solutions across the globe. Various international organizations have set up their offices here in India like Google, Accenture etc. It has helped in changing Indian economy from an agricultural based economy to a knowledge driven economy. This technical breakthrough has brought in more employment opportunities for Generation Y, but at the same time, the current scenario has made them vulnerable to life style diseases. In 2008, five out of the top ten causes for mortality worldwide, other than injuries, were non-communicable diseases; this will go up to seven out of ten by the year 2030. So it is high time for every country to have a check on the biological clock of its productive inhabitants through effective preventive strategies to reduce further incidences of high morbidity and mortality. Higher income levels and globalization have induced a nutritional shift resulting in the rise of unhealthy food and decreased intake of fruits and vegetables. These socioeconomic determinants have fuelled the growth of risk factors – both modifiable and non-modifiable. The present project studied the prevalence of life style diseases among software professionals, food habits and occupational patterns among the professionals. The study also tried to analyse the various healthy life style behaviours adopted by software professionals. The results show that there is prevalence of life style diseases among the software professionals. The important reason contributing to this situation is the occupation pattern and food habits of the respondents. The study also analysed the healthy life style behaviours adopted by software professionals. It was found that hardly they indulge in healthy life style behaviours due to lack of time. One important finding is that most of the organizations have wellness programmes in the organization to take care of the wellbeing of the employees.